Barely a week after Today reported the incidence of fraud at the office of the Nzema East Education Directorate in the Western Region, some teachers are being harassed and threatened under the tacit suspicion of blowing the cover off the corrupt practices.
In the melee, Officer-in-Charge of Integrated Personal Payroll Database (IPPD) in the district office of the Ghana Education Service (GES,) Mr Vincent Okoe, who doubles as a deacon of the Pentecost Church at Axim, decided to carry his anger further by cursing and calling down brimstone on our reporter who filed the earlier story and this paper.
In a typical tongue-speaking tone Mr Okoe charged: “That journalist will live to regret this and never shall he see happiness; he will suffer, he will vomit and ease blood before dying.”
Sources allege that Mr Okoe also promised to take on this reporter and his informants and deal with them accordingly, and that he was going to bring them to his spiritual consultant based at Beamish, a suburb of Axim, which consultant, according to public perception, is notorious for the death of many people.
When he heard a report of the curses, our senior reporter, Selorm Atutornu, contacted him, but a conspicuously incensed Mr Okoe denied ever invoking curses on anyone. “Those accusing me are being condemned by their own conscience,” he charged.
In an interview, several teachers reported that the harassment, manifest in the form of threats and ostracism against the teacher-victims, is being carried out against them by some of their colleagues and senior officials within the education directorate in the district.
Some of the teachers, speaking on condition of anonymity, disclosed being threatened to keep their mouths shut or face exit from the Service.
“One of the officers called me last Friday night to warn me to keep away from the media or consider my appointment terminated,” a teacher told this reporter in Axim last weekend.
The teacher added that the officer verbally attacked him for allegedly leaking information to the media and vowed to ensure that life becomes unbearable for the teacher if the media continues to unveil the rot in the Service.
The teacher also informed this reporter on the numerous insults and curses heaped on him and on Today for reporting the “chop-chop” going on in the district office of the Ghana Education Service.
“In fact the news has really taught these guys some big lesson since they thought no one could ever take them on for their corrupt deeds,” another visibly-elated teacher remarked and went on to call for immediate probe into the case. Most teachers are ready to testify when a committee is set up to investigate the allegations, he affirmed.
Speaking to this reporter, Mr Okoe said those suspected of spilling the beans on the “chop-chop” are still at post and have not been touched by either him or the director.
He lamented that he is simply a victim of those who wanted to tarnish his well-earned reputation.
In a related development, some victims of the long-going looting set up by the Nzema East Education Director, Miss Mariam Quansah, and her confidants have called on both the regional and national headquarters of the Ghana Education Service (GES) as well as the sector Minister to investigate and intervene to stop the systemic extortion.
The teachers commended this paper and its partners for their good work in helping the development of Mother Ghana and promised their support to this paper since according to them, the issues raised by Today were true.
Another source at the offices of the GES in the Nzema East District lauded this paper for unearthing a canker that, if not checked, could wreak havoc for the educational sector in that sector of the country.
It would be recalled that in its Wednesday, May 30, 2012 edition, Today reported massive “chop-chop” (through fraud) at the offices of the Nzema East Education Directorate in the Western Region perpetrated by a mafia-like group using their positions as a cover to extort money from the meagre back pay of teachers.
The alleged extortion, according to information available to us, was jointly master-minded by Madam Mariam Quansah, and a typist, who has now been illegally confirmed as finance officer, apparently due to his cunning ability at swindling teachers, especially those newly-appointed by the Ghana Education Service (GES,) of their pay and other due entitlements.
STORY: EVANS OSEI BAFFOUR, BACK FROM AXIM W/R.
